Automatic relief and condenser valve.



No. 691,067. Patented Ian. M, I902.

W. S. MONTGOMERY. AUTOMATIC RELIEF AND CONDENSER VALVE.

Application filed May 15:. 1901.)

2 Sheets-Sheet I.

(No Model.)

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' No. 691,067. Patented Jan. l4, mm. W. s. momsumanv. AUTOMATIC RELIEF AND GONDENSER VALVE.

Application filed May 15. 1901.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

7 ICPIQ o o 0 0 attozwu NITED STATES a WALTER S. MONTGOMERY, O

ATEN EEioE.

F ARLINGTON, NEW JERsEY.

AUTQlVlATlC RELIEF AND CONDENSER VALVE.

SPECZFIOATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 691,067, dated January 14, 1902.

Serial No. 60,368. (No model.)

To ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WALTER S. MONTGOM- ERY, acitizen of the United States, residing at Arlington, in the county of Hudson and State of NewJersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Relief and Condenser Valves; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable oth ers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates primarily to steam-engines, has especial reference to valves used in condensing plants for automatically directing the exhaust-steam from the main engine either to the condenser or to the atmosphere, and consists in certain improvements in construc tion, which will be fully disclosed in the fol-- lowing specification and claims.

The prevailing practice in the use of automatic reliefwalves in connection with condensers is to have the valve held to its seat by the pressure of the atmosphere on top of the valve while the vacuum is underneath the valve. Thus when the vacuum is lost from any cause it requires a slight pressure in the main engine exhaust-pipe to lift the ordinary so-called relief-valve, and while the engine is exhausting to the atmosphere the valve isresting on the current of outgoing steam. Consequently if the engine is to run non-condensing for any length of timeitis necessary to block or hold the relief-valve up by levers on the outside with Weights attached or by screwing a bolt up underneath the valve or by various other means, and it is necessary to have an additional gate or other valve to shut off the steam from going to the condenser.

The object of this invention is to provide a valve to perform automatically both of these functions.

The valve is operated by fluid-pressure from the boiler,controlled by a plug-valve supplied with ports to direct the fluid to move the valve in oppositedirections.

In the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a vertical section, partly in side elevation, illustrative of my invention; Fig. 2, a horizontal section on line 2 2, Fig. 1, and showing the plug-valve in section and the remaining parts in plan; Fig. 3, a side elevation of a sec tion of the relief-valve case or body; and Fig. 4, an enlarged detail view, partlyin section, showing the levers for operating the plugvalve.

Reference being had to the drawings and the designating characters thereon, 1 indicates the case or body of the relief-valve, which is secured to the upper end of a condenser-chamber2 andis provided with .a lower valve-seat 3, through whose ports or passages 4 exhaust-steam flows to the condenser, and an upper valve-seat 5 of the same or less diameter than the seat 3, through whose ports 6 steam is discharged to the atmosphere. The spider 7 supports a cylinder 8, secured thereto by a screw-threaded bolt 9, and is supplied with a fluid through a passage or duct 10 in one arm of the spider and apassage 11 in the spider 12 supports a piston 13, secured thereto by a screw-threaded bolt 14, and in the arm 15 of the spider is a passage or duct 16, and in the piston 13 isa passage 17, through which a fluid is supplied, and the valve-case is provided with an opening 18, to which the exhaust-pipe (not shown) is attached in any suitable manner, and a hand-1101c 19, provided with a suitable cover. (Not shown.)

indicates the relief-valve, which is provided with a lower valve-face 21 and an upper Valve-face 22, corresponding in diameter, respectively, with the lower valve-seat 3 and the upper valve-seat 5 of the case 1, and the valve is provided with a cylinder 23, preferably provided with a lining 2t, into which cylinder projects the cylinder 8, and from the upper end of the valve projects a cylinder and extends down into and is concentric to the cylinder 23 when the valve is resting on its'lower seatand concentric to and extends into both the cylinders 23 and 25 when the valve is resting on its upper seat. The cylinder 25 may also be provided with a suitable lining 26, and into this cylinder projects the piston 13, supported on spider 12.

On the lower side of the upper end of the valve, directly under the seat 5, is an annular gear 27, engaged by a pinion 28, connectgrinding the valve to its upper seat while the valve is in position, (see Fig. 3,) and the pinion, the rod, and the crank are supported in ed to a rod 29, provided with a crank 30, for

body of the cylinder, as shown in Fig. 1. The

has been ground to either seat the pinion 28 is drawn toward the valve-case out of engagement with the gear 27, where itremains until regrinding is required. This invention will form the subject-matter of another application for a patent.

33 indicates a plug-valve to whose case 34 is connected a pipe 35 for supplying fluid from a steam-boiler or other source of supply under high pressure+-say one hundred (100) poundsa pipe 36, leading to the passage in the upperspider, a pipe 37, leading to the passage in the lower spider, and a waste-pipe 38 for relieving the cylinders 23 and in the valve 20. This valve is provided with a rod or stem 89, to which is secured a lever 40 by a key 41 and a lever42, loose thereon, andhaving a notch 43, engaged by a dog orlatch 43, carried by lever 40 and held normally in engagement with the notch by a spring 44, and the lever 42 is provided with a wrist-pin 45, engaged by a rod 46, connected to the inner end of a lever 47, provided with a weight 48 and fulcrumed on a support 49.

50 indicates an air-chamber attached to and communicating with the condenser-chamber 2 by means of pipes 51 and 52. This chamher is provided with a metallic diaphragm 53,

joined to the lever 47 by a connection 54, an air-valve 55, whose stem 56'is attached to the arm 57 of the float 58, which arm is pivotally connected to the wall of the air-chamber to allow the float to rise and fall freely, and a valve 59, also pivotally supported and raised by a pin 60 on the stem 56 to close the inner end of pipe 51 and opened by the counterweight 61, forming part of the valve.

The operation is as follows: Before starting the condenser the main valve 20 is on its lower seat 3, and when the condenseris started and has produced enough vacuum in the airchamber 50 underneath the diaphragm 54 to overcome the weight 48 the diaphragm is pushed down by the atmosphere acting on its upper surface and through the rod 46 engaging the lever 42 on the stem 39 of the plugvalve 33 turns said valve and directs water under pressure from the pipe 35, communicating with the boiler into the lower cylinders 8 and 23, which now constitute one continuous cylinder and raise the valve 20 to its upper seat 5, so that the main engine can be started, and its exhaust-steam will flow directly to the condenser-chamber 2 in the usual way. If everything works properly, the valve 20 will remain in this position until the end of the days work, and then when the main engine and the condenser are shut down the vacuum naturally runs down until it gets to a point where the weight 48 will overbalance the pull of the vacuum on the diaphragm 54, when the weight descends and the plug-valve 33 is reversed to its opposite position, releases the water-pressure from the lower cylinder, and directs the water-pressure into the upper cylinder 25, which acting against the piston 13 pushes the valve 20 down to its lower seat 3, thus cutting off communication with the condenser and opening the valve to the atmosphere through its upper ports 6. If, how.- ever, during the operation of the engine the vacuum should be lost by overloads or leaks or other causes, this loss of vacuum automatically opens the valve 33 in the manner heretofore described, which closes the Valve 20 and allows the engine to work non-condensing with absolutely no back pressure and by closing the ports in the main valve at the upper end of the condenser-chamber at the same time prevents the condenser-chamber from becoming hot, as is the case in the usual methods of operation, and, further, as soon as the condenser produces its vacuum again the valve 20 will be raised automatically and direct the exhaust-steam into the condenser.

and the engine work condensing as before.

Should the condenser-chamber 2 become flooded from any cause, the float 58 in the air-chamber 50 will rise, when the water enters through the lower pipe 52, opens the airvalve 55, and closes the valve 59 at the end of the pipe 51, admitting air into chamber 50 underneath the diaphragm 53, and then break or destroy the vacuum in the chamber 50 and reverse the plug-valve 30, which causes the valve20 to resume its seat 3 and break or destroy the vacuum in the condenser-chamber 2. As the boiler-pressure in ordinary plants is usually above one hundred pounds and as the highest vacuum is only 14.7 pounds, the cylinder 25, holding the valve 20 to its seat, is much smaller in diameter than the valveseat proper.

The plug-valve 33 may be operated by hand by the use of the lever 40.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is- 1. A valve case having opposite valveseats,and a valve having corresponding faces; in combination with means within the valvecase for operating the valve in opposite directions, means for supplying fluid-pressure thereto, and a condenser-chamber.

2. A valve case having opposite valveseats,and a valve having corresponding faces; in combination with opposite cylinders within the valve-case, and means for supplying a fluid thereto and a condenser-chamber.

3. A valve case having opposite valveseats,and a valve having corresponding faces; in combination with opposite cylinders within the valve-case, a valve for supplying a fluid to said cylinders, and means for automatically operating the fluid-supply valve and a condenser-chamber.

4. A valve-case, a valve, and means within the valve-case for operating the valve by fluid-pressure; in combination with a fluidsupply valve, and means operated upon by the atmosphere to control the fluid-supply valve and a condenser-chamber.

5. Arelief-valve, a condenser-chamber, and a fluid-pressure chamber in communication with the condenser-chamber, and means operated from said pressure-chamber for holding the valve to its seat against the vacuum.

6. A relief-valve, and means for operating the valve by fluid-pressure; in combination with a fluid-supply valve, and an automatically-operated valve-controlling mechanism and a condenser-chamber.

7. A relief-valve, and a condenser-chamber; in combination with an air-chamber connected to said condenser-chamber, an airvalve, and a float for operating said valve to destroy the vacuum in said condenser-chamber.

8. A relief-valve, and means for operating said valve by fluid-pressure; in combination with a fluid-controlling valve, and alever connected to said valve and a condenser-chamber.

9. A relief-valve, and means for operating said valve by fluid-pressure; in combination with a fluid-controlling valve, and levers detachably connected together and engaging the stem of the operating-valve and a condenser-chamber.

10. A valve-case having opposite valveseats,and a valve having corresponding faces, concentric cylinders formed in the valve, and a piston for the inner cylinder, and means for supplying a fluid to said cylinder; in combination with a condenser-chamber.

11. A valve-case, a valve having concentric cylinders therein, a cylinder secured to the valve-case and extending into the outer cylinder in the valve, a piston secured to the valve-case and extending into the inner cylinder in the valve, and means for supplying a fluid to said cylinders; in combination with a condenser chamber.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WALTER S. MONTGOMERY.

Witnesses:

ERNEST J. SLUTER, WM. H. OSBORNE. 

